From SW

From LG April 4 2010

Gabe!
That store sounds like heaven.
I am building a large piece right now on streetlights. I am wishing I was near that store as I could use the lamp posts.
You should make that synth.
Sounds awesome.
Providence is wet.

From JT No date (recieved 2010)

Gabe,
I don't have a good answer. Whatever it takes, or whatever works I suppose.
I like doing video design for theankr & stuff, even though it's not necessarily "My Work" I put enough of myself into it to keep it interesting.
The porn job sounds kind of interesting too. Or at least bizarre.
I think people just do whatever they want however they can.

From LM April 1 2010

I realized, pen-pal, that I am a binge grocery shopper! Also, that I hate working from home, therefore LOVE going to work? As children we never anticipate the bizarre afflictions adulthood imposes on our otherwise sane selves.
I am truly enjoying going to the mailbox everyday, it is a familiar friend, a muscele memory.
I have been to Gold Bar for many a free taco and peanuts. Two years in a row we went on St Patricks Day. That was fun!
What is your favorite time of day and why?

From KE March 23 10

To LM March 27 2010

Wow, two days! My postcard to you will take slightly longer
1. because it is Saturday afternoon.
2. Because I need to scan and transcribe this card before I send it.
And
3. ...well there isn't really a third thing, but there should be.
Have you been to the bar at Sunset and Echo Park called the Gold Room?
We went in the other day, the walls are gold, there are twinkling lights installed in the ceiling and there are color changing lights installed under the bar!
The night we went in they were watching soccer (loudly and in Spanish) on the TV.
Another time.

To MH

To JT March 27 2010

What are some of your solutions to the commercial art dilemma?
If I have to work "for the man" at a jobs that pays enough so that I can make art that wont sell, is that better than making art panders to the whims of the art market?
At this point I don't have a job and I'm not making art that caters to any sizable audience. so...

To DA March 27 2010

The bug tacos were semi DIY. The place had tortillas that they had put bugs (larva), onion, cilantro and a little sauce (we think it was crema freska) into.
They also had bugs with avocado and salsa on tortilla chips.
The different dishes had different bugs.
They also had little bowls so you could snack on sauteed bugs.
THere was also a "live bar". That made me feel a little barbaric though.

From JT March 24 2010

I didn't see the Biennial or the Armory. Maybe I'll see the Biennial. I don't know if art should be commercial. This presents a problem. There are ways to solve this problem, they vary in feasabilty and fall along a gradation of idealism.
I've been with a song on you tube, from 1970s Italy. They sing "like English" but really it's just nonsense sounds mixed with random words.

From KE March 2010

From LP

From LM March 25 2010

3-25-10 --- That is also the day I got your postcard. 3 days.
Thank you for your generous aceptance of my late application, this postcard almost sent itself out of eager anticipation.
Forgive my watery mind, I am a little under the weather. I have generously applied hand sanitizer though. Hopefully we learned some new things about our postal system after we start dusting these postcards for prints.
Tag, your it!

From DA March 24 2010

Hi, G
Does eating bugs taco-style mean that there were taco shells stuffed with bug?
Intriguing to imagine whether you got to stuff your own taco or not.
This morning I taught a class where we wrote for nearly all of the two hours, with some talking in between. The guy who would have grumbled about so much writing left early, so we had good fun.
Now that I'm thirty, my eyes get bloodshot, I'm eating carrots tonight, wondering if 9:30 is too early to go to bed. I'm not going to think too hard about it.
-D

To LG March 23 2010

Just got back from the MOST AMAZING store!
They have so much stuff, there was a wall of knobs and three aisles of wire. Along with obsolete, dead and discarded electronics, they also carry light poles, airplane wings and I wandered into a section of very small bicycle tires.
All I need now is a project.
I am thinking of building an abacus synthesizer.

To KE - March 23 2010

So, we say "butt" not "bum". It is more crass. However we are generally thought of as a crass people and also "bum" refers to the homeless. Do you remember the Electronics store in Kingston, NY? I went to the west-coast-even-cooler version today. They have airplane wings, video mixers and surveillance cameras from eras that I didn't know had surveillance cameras.

From JT No date (recieved March 22 2010)

I'm feeling west-coast envy, it's been dreary here for a few weeks. My house plants are starting to liven up though.
Re: Las Vegas, I've never been but always wanted to go, I like "fake" worlds such as Epcot and Renaissance festivals, Civil War reenactments. Reno was cool, "little" Vegas lots of interesting people, actually too.

To LM March 22 2010

Dear Applicant,
Thank you for your recent entry to the Be My Pen-Pal project.
As you know we stopped taking applications on January First 2010. However, your application letter showed real promise. So, we would like to invite you on as a mid-season participant into the pen-pal project.
Congratulations!

Late Applicant March-ish 2009

To Gabriel Burian-Mohr it May Concern,

I submit the following paragraph on behalf of my interest and extensive credentials
in the postal and pen pal industry.   Please consider me as a late semester applicant
for the position.

My parents gave me $32.00 worth of postal stamps for my
sixteenth birthday along with a pair of shoes from KMart. Back in 1994 that bounty
could buy you like 4,000 letters, of which I had 0% interest
in sending.  The shoes got returned for the $11.99 in cash, and the horrid envelope with the
worst gift ever in it got buried in a drawer, along with my hopes and dreams of ever having
a car, boyfriend or achieving any level of coolness.  Two years later I went to college
and got a job in the mail room with a bunch of unruly hooligans who got paid
$5 dollars an hour to deliver mail on campus with the same anti-defeatist attitude as the real
postal workers of America: thru rain or shine or sleet or hail or drive-by's... blah blah.
I began decorating bits of trash and sending them to people in the dorms. We had glue sticks,
access to free postage, and that is when a portal in my mind opened and I became
inextricably linked to the postal messaging system, in like a higher consciousness kind of way. 
This obsession lasted for about 7 years, through several long distance relationships, penpals,
and pages upon pages of letters and postcards.  This enlightened period came to a halt in
the early aughts, with the onset of a drug called career that I became addicted to. Dirty little drug,
with promises of riches but no spiritual rewards. Well, fast forward to today, and this recovering
addict is ready for some post-Twitter post-enlightment magic that only the postal system can
offer in this age.

If this paragraph is suffice,

and my name is L        M        .

Thank you for your time.

To DA March 17 2010

In a frying pan over high heat add oil and butter.
-Do not add salt!
Add desired amount of eggs.
-Stir continuously.
Take pan off heat periodically to prevent eggs from drying out.
Once eggs are cooked, but not quite dry, add a table spoon or so of plain yogurt (the recipe actually calls for Crème fraiche).
-Stir in yogurt.
-Remove from heat.
-Salt and pepper to taste.

To AK March 15 2010

To JT March 15 2010

What is up in L.A., you ask....
Last week I got a response for a video editing job I applied for. They asked me to create a 60 second preview using material from one of their older titles. So, in case you hadn't guessed already; it is an adult film. So I spent a day last week watching porn and creating a "soft core" preview.
Anything of note at the Biennial or at the Armory?

From KE March 5 2010

to KE March 15 2010

Dear Pen-pal,
Yes we have Olympics here. We had the Summer (real) Olympics here in 1984. Did you watch any Olympics? I didn't.
The people at the table next to me are writing (or at least arguing about) a script. I am not folowing closely, but I just heard the words "masturbate" and "brute of a man". I think they are making a porno.

To LG March 14 2010

I was waiting to write until after I visited some "amazing" electronics store with a friend whom I was in my first rock band with (we were called The Male Men, and I think I was the singer). However, he has had to work (Auto Tune-ing pop songs) so we haven't gone yet. I will keep you posted.